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Advances in Sociological Knowledge pp 183–204Cite as

Social Capital as a Useful Scientific Metaphor

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Abstract

The concept of social capital is undoubtedly one of the most noticeable recent ‘newcomers’ in the social sciences. Since the beginning of the 1990s, and especially after the publication of Putnam’s study on civicness and institutional performance in Italian regions (Putnam, 1993), we are witnessing its unprecedented acceptance and application. This manifests itself both in the amount of published works related to issues of social capital and in the variety of studies where this concept is used either as an explanandum or as an explanans. Instead of listing the fields of its application, it would be easier to describe where the concept has not been applied yet. It could even be argued that social theory is being rewritten through the lens of the idea of social capital (Fine, 2000: 125). It is one of the concepts that has not remained confined to sociology or to social sciences, but has also entered public debates. Certainly, this is not a unique case of a trendy concept, not to say buzzword, which has risen to widespread prominence. Globalisation, post-modernism, or civil society, to name just a few, are other well-known examples.1

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Authors
  1. Frane Adam
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  2. Borut Rončević
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Free University, Berlin, Germany

    Nikolai Genov (Professor of Sociology) (Professor of Sociology)

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© 2004 Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden

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Adam, F., Rončević, B. (2004). Social Capital as a Useful Scientific Metaphor. In: Genov, N. (eds) Advances in Sociological Knowledge. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-09215-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-663-09215-5_8

  • Publisher Name: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-8100-4012-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-663-09215-5

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